The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 29

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Surviving in the Martial Realm as a Mage: Episode 29
“…What in the world is this monster doing?”
The expression on that mad Kid’s face right now.
As if he’d just tasted some heavenly delicacy.
It was pure bliss and rapture incarnate.
“That was truly delicious. I’d say this deserves a B-grade rating. You actually possessed a rather impressive secret magic technique, didn’t you?”
“Th-the barrier really… shattered?”
That Samrajihyeok Daegangijin?
This Kid destroyed Cheonsa-ok’s secret formation technique?
Unable to accept this incomprehensible reality, Gong Jeol-gang finally lost his mind.
He laughed deliriously before his legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
Splat—
A pool of blood spreading across the floor.
Sitting on his haunches beside the corpse of Gyolyong Chae-ju Sun Tae-go, Gong Jeol-gang swayed like a man possessed.
‘It’s beyond my control now.’
The formation technique I created by sacrificing years of arduous cultivation had been broken.
Now came the time to bear the full weight of its backlash.
Indeed, the shimmering fragments scattered like glass began to slowly coalesce in the air, forming the shape of something like a pale white mist.
[Shiiiiit—!]
The completed form resembled a massive lizard.
It immediately lunged with its gaping maw wide open, attempting to devour Gong Jeol-gang from the crown of his head.
There was no way to stop this.
After all, it was merely the karmic retribution I had sown returning to me.
But then.
Shhwaaaack—
The Kid who appeared out of nowhere sliced the lizard clean in half vertically with effortless ease.
And looking down at Gong Jeol-gang with widened eyes, he smiled.
“Since you showed me something quite interesting, consider this a bonus.”
“….”
…Did he just sever the backlash itself?
With bare hands, without any special artifact?
As Gong Jeol-gang’s eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck at his inability to comprehend the situation.
Ilhyang bit the tip of his own finger to draw blood.
He approached the black monkey standing motionless and spoke.
“This Ego Golem too—since it saved your life, I’ll take it as compensation. You have no objections, right?”
As if it could voice any.
Confronted by an endless stream of incomprehensible events, Gong Jeol-gang finally abandoned all attempts at reasoning and opened his mouth to ask.
“Who exactly are you, sir? A Disciple of the Noejon Munui could never break through the Samrajihyeok Daegangijin. If you’ve concealed your identity, this humble Junior Guard begs for your instruction.”
Even the current master of Cheonsa-ok.
Could not have broken through the Samrajihyeok Daegangijin once activated without suffering any damage whatsoever.
This makes no sense whatsoever.
After all, that formation was designed to contain monsters far beyond the caster’s own realm.
Upon hearing Gong Jeol-gang’s question, Ilhyang
shrunk the massive black ape down to a manageable size and tucked it into his sleeve, his face flushed with unmistakable excitement as he tilted his head.
“Don’t throw around words like ‘absolute.’ That’s just your standard, isn’t it?”
“…!”
Standards are always relative.
Ilhyang possessed unwavering confidence in his Anti-Magic abilities.
And before someone like me,
no magical sealing formation could ever pose an obstacle.
‘It was a bit unusual, though.’
Ilhyang’s face broke into the kind of innocent, unguarded smile only a child could muster.
Today felt like a birthday.
I had ‘observed’ two entirely new types of magic after all.
“Regardless, this matter is settled~”
Uncharacteristically,
Ilhyang hummed a light rhythm and turned his head to look around.
That’s when I noticed the water bandits aboard Nataryongwang’s ship had frozen in place, their fearful gazes fixed upon the deck.
“A, a monster….”
“It, it’s a divine being! Quickly, prostrate yourselves and bow!”
“Our leader is dead?”
“So you want to die too?”
Those who had prowled the river like predators
collapsed to the deck the moment the house-sized black ape appeared, their eyes cast downward.
The Jiao Long Faction’s water bandits had completely surrendered.
“The problem is over there. What should I do about it?”
The Jiao Long Faction had given up the fight.
But the Yan Wang Faction and Blood Wolf Faction weren’t virtuous enough to abandon a winning battle.
They continued their assault regardless of what transpired behind them,
their killing intent blazing as they climbed aboard Jinseong Transport Company’s vessel and slaughtered the bounty hunters without mercy.
Ilhyang observed their rampage for a moment,
then walked toward the forward deck as casually as if taking a stroll.
Creak— creak—
The ship’s weathered wooden planks shrieked in protest against one another.
The prostrate water bandits quickly parted to both sides.
A path opened down the center of the deck.
Ilhyang moved lightly along that passage and stepped onto the railing at the bow of Nataryongwang’s ship.
“Mm.”
Since Nataryongwang was roughly twice the size of the other sailing ships,
simply standing on the railing afforded me a panoramic view of the entire surrounding landscape.
As Ilhyang gazed down at the Ronin Group clustered frantically aboard the sailing ship mere paces away, drenched in blood and frantically administering emergency treatment to one another, he found himself lost in contemplation.
Among the wounded was one man in particular.
Jochang, the senior escort of Jinseong Escort Agency, caught sight of Ilhyang and cried out loudly, waving his broken arm as blood spilled from his lips.
“Master! Please find the strength! Help our Jinseong Escort Agency!”
“….”
Ilhyang’s eyes narrowed to slits.
The subcontracted mission had already been completed.
He had undertaken a task that demanded risking his life, and the Escort Bureau had even stamped their seal of completion in advance.
‘Then it’s finished.’
The mission he had undertaken as a Ronin was already concluded by blocking the Jiao Long Faction.
There was no obligation of honor to intervene further.
“Please! I beg you, Great Master! Deign to look upon us with mercy!”
Thud—thud!
Thud—thud—thud!
Jochang, his entire body caked in blood, pleaded for help, invoking the bonds of affection they had shared.
Ilhyang was far from a virtuous person.
Rather, by the standards of good and evil that the world had established—
By the measure of black and white—
Ilhyang leaned infinitely toward the darkness.
‘It’s simply the nature of mages, after all.’
As a human being,
I was a creature fundamentally lacking something vital.
That was what a mage truly was.
Statistically, the greater the deficiency, the higher the achievement in magic.
Ilhyang was no exception.
Anything that did not serve magic was worthless to me.
Had I received such a proposal in my original world?
I might have merely watched for amusement as a faction crumbled to ruin before my eyes.
‘But.’
Ilhyang stroked his smooth, beardless chin once.
The situation had changed.
In this world, I was no longer an absolute powerhouse as I had been in the past.
Here, there was nothing to serve as my foundation,
And I possessed no resources whatsoever.
Without a foothold, it was difficult to pursue the study of magic.
How convenient it had been to establish a Magic Tower in my former territory?
The early stages had been troublesome in various ways,
But after that, everything had flowed as smoothly as I had foreseen.
The moment my thoughts reached this point,
Ilhyang’s eyes suddenly gleamed with clarity.
Perhaps in this very moment.
I might be able to establish a foundation in this world that could serve me well.
‘Should I construct a Magic Tower here as well?’
It didn’t seem entirely impossible.
This place, too, certainly.
Though the form and shape differed somewhat.
‘Mystery’ existed here as well.
The time it took Ilhyang to reach this conclusion.
Was but a fleeting instant—the blink of an eye.
Having organized his thoughts with such speed, Ilhyang opened his mouth while regarding Jochang.
“I am a Ruffian, and merely having acquaintance does not obligate me to offer free service. I intend to secure proper compensation—can you guarantee this?”
“Of course! Jang Guk-du and I shall guarantee it!”
Ilhyang gazed upon the two battered bounty hunters and smiled coldly.
“Regardless of what that compensation might be?”
“Even our lives, should you require them.”
The lives of these two men held not the slightest value to me.
Yet Jang Guk-du beside Jochang, wiping blood from his brow with rough gestures, had offered his guarantee repeatedly.
Thus I reluctantly nodded my head.
“I shall place my trust in you, then.”
I reached into my sleeve and withdrew the trinket I had just obtained.
Then I drew my arm back behind my shoulder.
And stretched it forward in a throwing motion.
Launching the small monkey figurine high into the sky.
From its original form as an Ego Golem.
The Dae Heuk Seong, whose mana formula I had briefly rearranged by attribute, descended from the heavens toward the ground.
Simultaneously.
Kwaaaaaang—!
With a tremendous explosion.
The river surged upward violently.
* * *
Lord of Jinseong Escort House.
Jin Yu-seong sat half-collapsed on the deck, drenched in blood, gasping for breath.
‘Where did everything go wrong?’
The plan had not been poor.
Rather, for something devised in such haste, it had been the most ideal strategy possible.
Ten masters of the pinnacle realm had been mobilized for this operation, including myself.
A force more than sufficient to overcome any crisis.
I had been certain of this.
And yet.
‘I underestimated their strength.’
The water bandits of the Jiao Long Faction, Yan Wang Faction, and Blood Wolf Faction had not only brought nearly their full forces.
But like Jinseong Transport Company, they had also invited powerful masters from outside.
“Do not resent me. Is this not how the world works?”
A massive cleaver with a blade the size of a human torso.
A middle-aged man grinning while wielding it in both hands.
Maeng Ryeo, the Iron-Blooded Sword.
He was regarded as among the highest ranks even among peak masters.
A blood-crazed madman who worked as a problem-solver here and there, relishing fights with the strong.
I never imagined the Jiao Long Faction would hire such a man.
“Well, it would be awkward for the fighters to apologize to each other one by one. I apologize for my rudeness. In this world, if you’re weak, you simply die—there’s no other way, is there? Still, your lord will have quite a magnificent death. To die by my hand.”
“Your words are growing long—it seems you’re rather exhausted?”
“Ha ha, a misunderstanding. This is what we usually call composure. I’ll even grant you time for a final testament or two. Your children are with you, are they not?”
As I listened to Maeng Ryeo’s mockery, I slowly surveyed my surroundings.
Of the peak masters I had invited, only six remained alive.
Out of ten peak masters.
Four had been killed and thrown into the yellow-clay river.
‘The rest are in poor condition.’
The enemy had ten peak masters still alive.
In truth, until the collision began, our forces had been roughly equal.
But the enemy had thoroughly understood our strength, while Jinseong Transport Company knew nothing of theirs.
‘And there was even a traitor.’
Behind Maeng Ryeo.
A sharp-featured man leisurely wiping his blood-stained blade on a corpse’s clothing.
I had to suppress the roiling fury within me.
“Soon Hong-dan. I never imagined you were the water bandits’ puppet. How could the direct disciple of the Posa Sect sell the sect’s pride to water bandits?”
A middle-aged man with a slick, oily face.
He brought his hands together in apology.
“I apologize. But this side seemed more profitable. A person must choose the right side to stand on. I do so love wealth and glory. Oh, and one more thing—my surname isn’t Mun, but actually Sun. Please call me Soon Hong-dan.”
At that shameless and infuriating response, I clenched my teeth hard.
When recruiting peak masters from outside.
I had conducted thorough background checks.
The bounty hunters’ identities were certain from the start.
The Ronins, once hired, had been completely cut off from outside information, so there was no chance of collusion.
The peak masters specially invited from outside—I had not only investigated their backgrounds but also verified the histories of their families and sects.
Multiple times, I had verified everything thoroughly.
I never imagined they would stab me in the back with the audacity to sell their entire families and sects.
A sense of emptiness rose to the tip of my throat.
Now was the time to make a decision.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————